The Manchester United fan in the fifth row of the Directors Box jumps to his feet before the ball even hits the back of the net.

It's six minutes past five on Sunday, August 15 and David Ngog has just struck Liverpool's first league goal of the season to give 10-man Liverpool the lead over Arsenal.

As the celebrations inside Anfield subside, Gavin Laws, born and raised a United supporter in Altrincham, Greater Manchester, slumps back into his seat. Two rows in front of him, Ian Rush looks back and catches Laws' attention - the pair can't hold back the smiles on their faces.

Within seven hours, due in no small part to the game being broadcast free-to view in China, it's estimated that up to one billion people around the globe will have seen Ngog strike the ball past Manuel Almunia before sliding to his knees with the shiny new Standard Chartered logo on his red shirt clearly visible to the TV cameras.

For Laws, Head of Corporate Affairs at Standard Chartered, and the 70,000 staff who work for the bank, it's a particularly sweet moment and not even an 89th minute own goal from Pepe Reina can take the shine off what has been an astonishing day at Anfield.

It is 10.25am on a lukewarm Tuesday morning 4,413 miles from Anfield and inside the Nyayo National Stadium in Nairobi; Gavin Laws is trying to put into words how he felt when he saw Steven Gerrard lead the team out in a shirt bearing the name of his employer for the last 30 years.

"I have worked for the bank all my life and so to see that and to get hundreds of texts from members of staff all over the world was just fantastic," Laws says. "It was a great day; the stadium looked fantastic, the shirts were great, the result wasn't quite there but apart from that it was perfect."

Listening to Laws enthusing about the Anfield crowd, dressed in a white polo shirt bearing the Liverpool crest on the front and Standard Chartered's name on the sleeve, you get the impression that like so many before him, he's already being sucked in by the infectious pull of the Kop.

It's exactly a year to the day since Laws and Ian Ayre shook hands on the deal that would soon hit the front pages as the biggest sponsorship deal in British football history. "The Liverpool deal is absolutely massive for Standard Chartered," Laws admits. "We've never done anything like this before. We sponsor the marathon here in Nairobi which is absolutely massive but nothing compares to the exposure we are getting through our association with Liverpool and the Premier League. When we were thinking about how we could grow our brand awareness globally, we looked at Formula 1 and basketball, which is massive in China, but nothing compares with the sheer appeal of the Premier League and with Liverpool, it just clicked immediately.

"We both believe in tradition, excellence and being good for our communities. From the very first meeting with Liverpool, it just seemed right. Kenny Dalglish arrived with the Liverpool party to the very first meeting and Ian Rush attended the second meeting. It's a bit of a show-stopper for the office when you see Kenny or Rushie walking around.

"When our head office saw what we could achieve working with Liverpool, there was no messing around. I think we concluded the whole process in just five weeks - which is amazing for a deal of this size."

Fresh from sharing the Directors Box on Sunday, Laws and Rush are reunited in Kenya today for the launch of the first ever LFC - SCB soccer clinic. Seven LFC Soccer Schools coaches touched down at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport on Sunday evening and having spent Monday acclimatising to their new surroundings - setting up the clinic in the morning and stroking cheetahs in the afternoon - they're now getting down to business on the pitch. Cones are laid out, balls and bibs are distributed and instructions are barked out in broad scouse accents.

"It's about bringing 'The Liverpool Way' of coaching to the boys and girls here in Nairobi," says Adam Flynn, the former Liverpool Academy player who is in now in charge of the LFC Soccer Schools coaching programme. "The kids here are so receptive to what we're trying to teach them, it's amazing. The level of skill is pretty impressive - a lot better than we were expecting anyway."

Looking proudly on from the edge of the pitch, Chris Amimo, can sense the excitement amongst the 100 boys and girls wearing their brand new Liverpool kits, handed over to each child by Standard Chartered this morning. As Chairman of Ligi Ndogo, the organisation from which all 100 children have come from today, he knows every single one of them. Ligi Ndogo translates as 'Little League' and each of the kids here today plays for a team that competes in the biggest junior league in Nairobi. Set up in 2002, Ligi Ndogo provides a safe environment to play football in for up to 6,000 youngsters from varying backgrounds.

"When we were told that Liverpool FC were coming and they were going to coach some of the boys and girls from Ligi Ndogo, it was an incredibly proud moment for me," Chris says from behind a pair of dark glasses. "To have Liverpool FC come to Kenya is unbelievable in itself but for our kids, who we do so much to encourage to attend school, to actually be here today is quite hard to describe. The hardest part for us was actually picking the 100 kids who could be involved because not everyone could come. We decided to pick probably the 80 best footballers across all the age groups and then 20 of the kids from the most deprived backgrounds as we know this experience can allow them to believe that anything in life is possible. To see the faces of the kids who were told they could come today was a really great moment. They've been talking about it for so long now; today was like waking up on Christmas morning for them."

Remy Sheikh is attempting to juggle the ball for the LFC TV camera and is one of the 80 or so youngsters who made the cut on merit alone. 12-years-old and looking like a young Patrick Kluivert, the youngster oozes confidence. One of the flag bearers for this morning's extravagant opening ceremony, Liverpoolfc.tv first met Remy at Monday's dress rehearsal. Wearing his white away kit for the 2007-8 season with No.9 on the back, he told us: "When I'm older I would like to play for Liverpool. I can play on the right wing or as a striker if I'm needed."

Last month, Remy travelled to England to take part in the Keele International Cup where he represented Ligi Ndogo in both the U-12 and U-14 categories. He enjoyed the tournament, he says, but wasn't spotted by one of the Liverpool FC scouts his father claimed were watching every game.

"It's in his blood," Remy's father Ali tells us. "He's infected by Liverpool."

To prove the point, he takes his camera out of his pocket and frantically thumbs through picture after picture of a recent safari trip until he comes to the photo he is looking for - one showing Remy, kitted out in his old Liverpool strip, smiling at the camera and holding up a 12th birthday cake with a big Liverpool crest made out of icing. "He very, very good," Ali says of his son, who is the only member of their family who supports Liverpool, "and they would have won the tournament if they'd had their proper team all playing in England. If they'd won it, I'm sure Remy might have caught the eye of an English scout."

By proper team, he means the 11 best players in their age group rather than the 11 Ligi Ndogo players who were able to make the trip to England because their parents could afford it.
One player who certainly won't be appearing at next year's Keele International Cup is Martin Munyiri.

The 13-year-old is singled out to us as one of the most underprivileged boys at the soccer clinic today. His father died before he was one, his mother died two years later and he now lives with his elderly grandmother in a slum in Nairobi. The place he calls home has no running water or electricity yet still he dreams of one day playing in goal for Liverpool. That's for the future, though; right now he looks visibly frightened when we try to interview him as the rest of the kids take a drink-break.

"He's a good goalkeeper but he's incredibly shy," says Stanley Achima, the Ligi Ndogo coach who has taken Martin under his wing. "I've known him for five years and he's such a nice boy. He was living with his brother but I got him moved to live with his grandmother because it wasn't a good situation that he was in. He does go to school but he relies on the other parents who live near him to buy his school uniform. The Liverpool kit he's wearing now is probably the first piece of clothing he's even owned that hasn't been worn by someone else first. That in itself makes today a special day for the likes of Martin. He's been surrounded all his life by older boys walking around with guns, chewing qat, drinking potent local brews and robbing their own people. That's why what Liverpool are doing today is so important for the kids - particularly those from less prosperous backgrounds, because it shows them that there is an alternative future available to them. I know the chance of any of these kids today making it as Liverpool players is slim but we owe it to them to believe it's at least a possibility."

Edwin Nandwa, like Stanley Achima, coaches the Ligi Ndogo kids. Despite having played professional football himself in the Kenyan Premier League for Utalii, he admits he's just as excited about learning from the Liverpool coaches as the boys and girls he sees every week.

"This is a huge opportunity for me today," Edwin says, fresh from sitting through a 30-minute Q&A session between the local coaches and Liverpool's Adam Flynn. Complete with marker pen and flipchart, Flynn tried to answer as many questions thrown his way as he could. What's the most effective formation used in the Premier League in recent years? How early can you try to teach tactics to young players? What's the best way to keep the attention of kids getting bored on the training ground? Their appetite for improving their football knowledge was insatiable.

"We feel really privileged that Liverpool FC have come to Kenya," continues Edwin. "When we see you on our TV screens, you seem so far away so to actually get the chance to meet a legend like Ian Rush and learn from the coaches is something that we appreciate so much."

"I've travelled all over the world with Liverpool and Wales and I'm told that the one thing letting down so many very talented young footballers in Kenya is a lack of adequate football coaching," explains Rush, when we catch up with him after lunch on Tuesday afternoon. "Lots of kids who may have had very promising futures in the game see their talents go unfulfilled because there aren't enough coaches here who have the skills, the experience and the expertise to take them to that next level. For me, that's why the work Adam [Flynn] and the rest of our coaches are doing today is so important. They're training the kids but while the kids are eating their lunch, they're coaching the coaches."

"Our coaches have learnt a lot," confirms Chris Amimo. "They have been desperately soaking up as much knowledge as they can from the Liverpool boys. We have 16 coaches here but each coach can reach 400 different kids. Our goal is to enable kids - no matter how poor their background - to play and enjoy football but I'd be lying if I said I didn't want Ligi Ndogo to ultimately produce players who can grace the Premier League in England and the Liverpool team in particular.

"Liverpool have certainly won over a lot of new fans in Nairobi this week and if any of these kids do go on to make it, you'd hope Liverpool could possibly benefit from that but first we need to improve the standard of football in Kenya. At the moment, because our FIFA ranking is so low [Kenya are currently ranked 113th in the world - down from their 2008 high of 68] our players, no matter how talented, can not get work permits to play in the Premier League. If the national team improves, our ranking improves and that could open the doors for our players to make it on the biggest football stage. One day I think a Kenyan will play for Liverpool and when he does, no one will be prouder than me."

Eight-year-old Samson raises his arm in the air to signal to Rose Bii that he's got something to contribute to the discussion about AIDS, the disease that kills more Africans than any other. When she gives him the go-ahead, he quickly looks around at the other boys sat on little chairs in a half-circle, before delivering his pearl of wisdom. "My friend," Samson starts, trying to hold back the giggles, "said he was told by his older brother to start smoking so he did and then when he took his first puff, he caught AIDS straight away and died."

Half of the class almost fall off their chairs laughing at Samson's tale as Rose tells two of the other boys to stop wrestling over the same chair. Over the next 20 minutes, there's enough far-fetched myths delivered about AIDS / HIV to give Samson's story a run for its money.

Clyde: "You can get AIDS from sharing a glass of milk."

Tony: "I know someone who got HIV from getting in the same minibus as someone else."

Francesco: "Smoking causes babies."

Mu: "When I was in the car with my mum, she had the radio on and they said that they've found a cure for AIDS. If you eat enough porridge you don't die of AIDS."

Welcome to the surreal world of the Under-8s HIV Awareness Programme being conducted by Rose, a Standard Chartered HIV Champion. Rose would normally find herself behind a desk in the Technology and Operations division of SCB but today, just like lots of the staff inside the Nyayo National Stadium today, she is here as part of the companies Staff Volunteer scheme that encourages every member of staff to take three days paid leave each year to give something good back to the community.

Having drawn the kids into today's Soccer Clinic by the lure of being coached by Liverpool FC and meeting Ian Rush, the post-lunch downtime is used to convey a very serious message - even to those too young to properly comprehend what they're being taught. It's all part of SCB's commitment to educating 1 million people about HIV and AIDS by the end of 2010.

The class back under control, Rose gets everyone on their feet to sing a song she's taught in schoolrooms all over Nairobi - complete with related actions:

'These are my private parts,
My private parts,
My private parts,
These are my private parts,
No one shall touch'

"With kids this young, we're not teaching them about unprotected sex or sharing needles," explains Rose, "we're teaching them to understand that their private parts are not for other people to see or touch. Children their age are very vulnerable to sexual exploitation and that's why we take the approach we do. It's interesting they keep bringing cigarettes into this - that's good because although cigarettes may not be connected with HIV, the children associate bad things with smoking and that means they're less likely to want to start smoking. Kids this age don't understand everything but through this partnership with Liverpool FC, we can reach them through football. At the end of the session, I told them all that if they want to grow up and one day play for Liverpool Football Club, they need to take care of themselves. I told them they won't get to grow up and emulate the likes of Steven Gerrard or Fernando Torres if they become infected by HIV and that makes them sit up and take notice. They all want to play for Liverpool after today so if what I've said makes them think and look after themselves or run and tell their mum or dad or teacher if someone is doing something that they shouldn't, it makes today a success for me personally."

Ian Rush, Gavin Laws, myself and two cameramen - one from LFC TV and another from a local news crew - are all stood in silence inside the operating theatre of the Kikuyu Hospital, a specialist eye unit situated on the outskirts of the Kenyan capital. Dressed in theatre gowns, hats and masks, we're awaiting the arrival of Patient E513614 who is due to undergo surgery to remove cataracts from both eyes. While Laws has seen this operation performed before, Rush looks pale and appears apprehensive about what is about to happen. His mood is not exactly helped when Patient E51314 emerges from the waiting room and duly panics when she sees us. The tears start to trickle down her face and then the screaming starts. She wants her dad, Joseph, who appears to be sat outside in the corridor. She's scared, she's blind and she's just five-years-old. The name on her file reads Monicah and she travelled over 300km to get here today. 

The nurse manages to calm her down and she's led past us and lifted up onto the operating table. A brief, brave struggle follows before the needle with the general anesthetic does its job and there's silence in the operating theatre once again.

What follows is an operation that is extremely difficult for all of us to watch, takes less than an hour and costs 35,000 Kenyan Shillings (approx £275). It's funded by SCB's 'Seeing is Believing' project - an initiative that has already restored the sight of 2 million people in the developing world and aims to raise $20m by 2014 to provide eye care for some 20 million more people.

Without the money raised by SCB, Monicah's father would not have been able to afford the operation for his daughter and that's why Gavin wanted Ian and LFC TV to see first hand the work that Liverpool's new shirt sponsor is doing all over the world. He's incredibly passionate about the fact that his company - and the club they now sponsor - can both be a force for good.

"Banks have a bad reputation and, in lots of cases, deservedly so, but I think most people would recognise that we are trying to make a difference, we're trying to put something back and this is just one small way of doing it," Laws says after leaving the operating theatre and removing the blue hospital gown. "'Here for Good' is our brand promise and it's a pretty bold claim but it's a claim we feel we can honour. We want to do things the right way and we need to prove to people we are useful for society and that we do have things to offer. We're still a commercial organisation and we still have to make a profit but we have to do it the right way. That little girl arrived at this hospital blind. Tomorrow morning, the nurses will remove the bandages from her eyes and she'll be able to see again. In three days, when she leaves here, she'll be able to see as well as you and me and that's why I wanted Ian to see it today because this is the sort of thing this partnership between Standard Chartered and Liverpool FC can achieve."

Ian Rush is back on more familiar ground and looking all the better for it. Sat on a chair behind a goal being used for shooting practice by the older players under the command of the Soccer Schools coaches, he's reflecting on what has been a pretty eventful three days in Kenya. After observing the young girl having her sight restored this morning, he proudly presented the hospital with a £300,000 state-of-the-art Accurus machine [funded by SCB's 'Seeing is Believing' project] that could help doctors restore the eyesight of more than 700 children each year in Nairobi. Yesterday afternoon he adopted a baby elephant at the Daphne Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage - to highlight the plight of elephants killed due to poaching - and last night he topped even that by being anointed an 'Elder' by the leader of a local tribe. Then there's been the countless local interviews about everything from Liverpool's title chances to the state of Kenyan football and what he thought of the African nations at this summer's World Cup not to mention the opening of this, the first ever LFC - SCB Soccer Clinic. It's probably a safe bet to say that when he re-signed for Liverpool back in April, adopting elephants or overseeing eye operations wasn't part of the package he signed up to.

"It's been an amazing experience," he says of the trip. "Everyone has been so friendly and the first thing you notice is how much love is shown for Liverpool Football Club. I think a few of the younger lads over here with us coaching the kids have been shocked by just how many Liverpool supporters we have here in Kenya but nothing surprises me anymore when it comes to this club. I was in China in 2000 and it was the same. The club is so special and people see that. If we get it right on the pitch then there's no telling what can happen throughout the world.

"I don't think people in England realise just how big Liverpool Football Club is around the world and by coming to places like this and offering this coaching to the kids, we're encouraging more and more people to support the club.

"We haven't been as successful as Manchester United over recent years, but off the pitch we are just as big, if not bigger. When I played for Liverpool, we were a family club and I think we're trying to get that back because we seemed to lose it for a bit but we've still got the Kop, the singing and 'You'll Never Walk Alone'. It's incredible when you go around the world and people come up to you, say your name and then say 'You'll Never Walk Alone'.

"When I was asked by Liverpool to come back, I couldn't say no and seeing all the good work that's gone on over here in the name of Liverpool Football Club this week, I'm just really proud to be a part of it."

Gavin Laws, the Manchester United fan who last week cheered a Liverpool goal at Anfield for the first time, would no doubt echo that sentiment.

To see all the pictures from Liverpool's trip to Kenya click the image below